Private funeral held for Wagner chief Prigozhin in Russia: What we know so far

Secrecy surrounded the funeral arrangements for Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash on August 23.

The funeral of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin who was killed in a plane crash last week was held privately at a cemetery on the outskirts of his hometown St Petersburg. "The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed format. Those who wish to say goodbye may visit Porokhovskoye cemetery," his press service said in a short post on Telegram along with a photo of Prigozhin, Reuters reported.

A woman lights a candle at a makeshift memorial for Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group. (Reuters)

Secrecy surrounded the funeral arrangements for Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash on August 23, exactly two months since staging a mutiny which posed the biggest challenge to Russian president Vladimir Putin's rule since he rose to power in 1999.

The Kremlin earlier said that Vladimir Putin would not attend the funeral. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the funeral arrangements were a matter for the Wagner chief's family, adding that Moscow did not know when the funeral would take place.

“The president’s presence [at Prigozhin’s funeral] is not envisaged. We don’t have any specific information on the funeral,” he said.

In the place crash two other top Wagner figures, four Prigozhin bodyguards and three crew members were also killed.

The Russian investigative committee has not yet put forward a list of possible causes of the crash but preliminary western intelligence assessments concluded that the explosion was intentional. US president Joe Biden suggested that Vladimir Putin could be behind the plane crash saying, “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind."

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the death of the Wagner chief, calling western intelligence assessments of the Russian president’s potential involvement “an absolute lie”.